Did being donkeys work against them?

Lack of evidence or its disappearance has never hindered Indian policemen from doggedly pursuing their targets. So, it is not at all surprising that eight donkeys found themselves behind bars, even though the evidence of their alleged crime had vanished: decorative plants and flowers whose said value was varyingly estimated at Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh.

No doubt their four-day sojourn in a jail in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district did eventually see the emergence of evidence, but it was obviously not in a form that was identifiable.

Clearly, the herbivores had no idea that they were chewing up expensive rather than garden-variety greens, else, they may have been circumspect. Or maybe they did know and merely wanted the equivalent of a gourmet meal as a change from their usual dried fodder.

However, the stink raised by the donkeys’ purported feast may not go away that easily for the police will have to explain why such extravagant sums were spent on potted plants in the first place.

It was also unfair, if somewhat predictable, that only the donkeys found themselves in the clinker although they were not the only phytophagic filchers in action that day. Cows and goats are not jackasses, after all. Anyway, it will probably be donkey’s years before the police allow such a crime to be perpetrated on their premises again.